Making over a dress

We get used cape dresses from some friends of ours in WA state. I do not care for this particular style of dress, but am very thankful for the free dresses!!! We alter them just a bit to suit our needs. They come with tight elastic waist lines and the skirts do not go down as long as I'd like. We cut out the elastic so the waist is comfortable, and add a strip of fabric to the bottom for extra length. We do our best to match the strip of fabric to the dress ... but sometimes it's not as close as we'd like. Oh well :) For fabric, we buy king sized sheets for a dollar at the thrift store ... that's a lot of fabric for $1! These sheets can also be used to make night gowns, veils, aprons, and several other things.

Here are a few pictures of one dress we made over ...

Sometimes we do not like the color of the dresses, so we dye them. This is a picture of the old fabric (the belt we do not use), and the new - we used 'Royal Blue'.

Don't throw away the belts ... the little ones enjoy playing with them!! Here's Wyatt wearing Brianna's old belt over his head and Corban's boots. His brother Lincoln is in the background - Brianna is helping him with a belt :)

Here's Brianna wearing the dress - notice the extra fabric [bed sheet] at the bottom; it matches close enough. Lincoln wanted to be in the picture too.

Another good clothing find at the thrift store: scrubs (the things nurses wear). We buy the pants for $.50 at a thrift store in the next town North (Mt. Vernon). Some of the colors were wild, so I dyed them black/grey. The scrubs are nice because your skirt/underskirt will not cling to your pants. As an extra bonus, they are very comfortable. No need to buy fabric and make your own bloomers :)

OK, that's all for now!